Big Wheel Honda XR 650 - Where will balloon tires take you today?

“Consider this a huge balloon-tired middle finger to the crowd who think we exist to build bikes that will knock the chips off their shoulders.”

As rewarding as creating custom motorcycles can be, there’s a degree of frustration that goes along with it. For instance, you build something that any red-blooded gear head should appreciate—then here come the trolls.

Even through the positive comments far outweigh the bad, we’re human, and the trolls have a way of getting under our skin. Not because what we build isn’t their cup of tea, either.

It’s more that they’re so freakin’ arrogant. Presumptuous. Uninformed. Typing their little quips and assuming the few minutes they’ve spent looking at a bike on a screen, trumps all the hours we spent on it. THEY are the experts after all.

“Your butt is gonna catch on fire with that exhaust. Good luck riding it in the rain. That thing ain’t gonna turn for shit. All your bikes look the same.” So say the armchair builders. Who have loads of time on their hands to opine, while the rest of us are hard at work trying to make stuff happen.

Well, this Honda XR650L is for them. Consider it a huge balloon-tired middle finger to the crowd who think we exist to build bikes that will knock the chips off their shoulders.

If you think you’re an adventurer—a real motorcyclist, whatever that is—yet seem to demand the ultimate in practical, cushy, two-wheeled sterility, you are absolutely gonna despise this thing, you crotchety old fart.

And we love it as much as that type despises it. It has all the signature cues of a Classified Moto machine, with the addition of two insanely huge knobby tires that probably aren’t even street legal. Except that they are.

And a massive, jack-shafted swing arm that probably doesn’t work as well as the original setup. Except that it does.

The Classified Moto BW650 has a lot of outrageous looking features that mean it probably doesn’t do anything very well—except that it is incredibly fun to ride.

Blasting around the city, roosting through the dunes, cruising at freeway speeds, slinging gravel and dirt and snow. It kind of does it all.

BUILD SHEET

Donor: 1996 Honda XR650L
Forks: 2014 Yamaha WR250R
Triple tree: CM custom billet upper and lower
Front wheel: Honda ATC250R
Front brakes: Honda XL600R
Rear wheel: Yamaha BW200
Tires: STI Black Diamond (DOT radial)
Rear shock: Progressive Suspension 465
Tank: Honda CM185T
Intake: Custom CM stainless
Exhaust: Full CM custom stainless
Seat: Custom waxed canvas and leather
Battery: Shorai Lithium Ion
Chain: DID Gold X-Ring
Instruments: Acewell digital

Classified Moto's Honda XR650L is one, big 'FUCK YOU!" to the haters